"If you knew what to look out for, you would not have wasted your time calling, google, or searching out a company and then contacting that company trying to find out if a client is an employee there. All you had to do was to see the words Google Hangout and you would have known and moved on."

"Any FL who spends even a tiny bit of time and attention learning about how to use UW before jumping in, knows to ignore posts and invitations that mention Google Hangouts."

"Everybody either already knows not to do that, or perhaps could do with a lesson."

If everyone here only wants to help, why did they phrase it in such a way that was CLEARLY critical? Instead of saying, Google Hangouts is a bad sign, they assumed that I was just too stupid, based on my very simple post about this scammer, to realize anything was suspicious. They also said "if you had...", which is not advice. It's talking about the past, something that has happened. I found absolutely none of these comments to be remotely helpful. So either that wasn't the intention, or they were so terribly written, they failed to communicate any "serious, helpful advice" at all.

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What I had written to you is true. You are a new freelancer. Scammers look and prey on new freelancers. Do you know why? It's because they just jump right in, fill out a profile and think that's it. They don't realize that this is a World Wide platform, There are no restrictions for clients in order to use this site. And because of that, this site will attract a lot of scammers. As I stated, "If you knew what to look out for" is IMO spot on.

There are only about 4 or 5 scams here targeting new freelancers. And they exist because new freelancers keep falling for them.

You are weaving a fantsy in your mind when you say we are calling you stupid, etc. Not a single person said that. New freelancers rarely come on here to read about scams, nor do they read about what to look out for, Upworks procedures and do's and don't's.

Freelancers gain nothing when they search companies. Did you know that's a scam? Scammers say they are from XX company ONLY to gain your trust. You trust them,-

I think I echo when I say it's a waste of time to google companies. You are here for 2 purposes. 1. To obtain work and 2. to be paid when you complete that work. It doesn't matter who or where the client is from.

I usually say, if you buy a product that needs to be assembled, do you just jump right in or do you read the instructions first? Same here. Stay in this forum for a week or so. (or search for scams on here) You'll find it's only new freelancers posting with the same statements as you. And it's only after the fact that they come on here.

If you want helpful advice, then here it is.

Search this forum and the New Freelancer form for SCAMS.

In the new Freelancer form read all the information in the very first post.

“If you knew what to look out for, you would not have wasted your time calling, google, or searching out a company and then contacting that company trying to find out if a client is an employee there. All you had to do was to see the words Google Hangout and you would have known and moved on.”

“Any FL who spends even a tiny bit of time and attention learning about how to use UW before jumping in, knows to ignore posts and invitations that mention Google Hangouts. UW can't police that scam effectively, it's like playing whack-a-mole. But it is such an obvious one that it is EASY to avoid--except for those who plunge into UW without doing their homework first.”

= Blaming and condescending tone.

“Everybody either already knows not to do that, or perhaps could do with a lesson.” Yeah, Noelle is right, that literally just means they deserve to be scammed. Like how else can you take that? Lol

A better way to say it would be “I’m sorry that happened to you. It can happen to many new freelancers. Ones that say ‘Google Hangout’ are almost always scams, so in the future I’d suggest just ignoring those.”

If your issue is that you don’t want to see these posts, rather than being so snarky about it, you can also just say “Thanks for bringing this to our attention, but most people know that Google Hangouts is a scam, so you don’t need to post about it here next time. I see that you’re new so you probably didn’t know.”

Preston, you’re right that the community has a “distinctive personality and vibe” and it’s very uncouth, and unnecessarily so.